Getting Organized In The Craft Room

After the whirlwind of the Christmas season, my craft room / office was a complete shambles.   I've not had a chance to full organize this room since we moved in last September, and then the holiday season just made things worse.


Just to give the full scope of the problem, here's a panoramic shot from the doorway.  Ugh!!!!

It was pretty bad. The desk/table was just unusable.

The opposite wall was just a jumbled mess.

After a couple of hours of cleanup and organizing work, this is the "after."

Ahh, so much better now! I can see the desk!

The shelf space above the desk is awaiting something pretty. Right now, it's holding raw materials for a couple of projects I have in mind.

The opposite wall is much more organized, and I've got some extra table space that I'm trying to decide how best to use.

I've set up a table to hold the sewing machine that I've just bought (and haven't unboxed yet for lack of space).  I'm looking forward to begin able to sew a few projects that I have lined up.  (The door leads to an adjacent bathroom, but we don't use that door so I'm able to cover it up without a problem. The bathroom also has a door from the hallway.)

I'm currently using an Ikea Expedit shelf unit for storage.  The items in the bins change based on what projects I have in the queue at any given time.

Right now, I've got:

1. A collection of wooden birdhouses that I've had and can't seem to part with.
2. A corner etagere which doesn't fit anywhere in my new house, but I can't seem to part with.
3. A binder of letter stencils, and a handful of old journals that I can't seem to part with.
4. A bin full of sweaters which are waiting to become pillow covers.
5. A clock.
6. A bin full of sweaters which are waiting to be shrunk and used as craft projects.
7. A bin full of colored card stock and scrapbooking papers that I can't seem to part with.
8. A really, really, really old photo of my husband and I, when we were young and had all our hair!
9. A bin full of painting supplies of all types
10. Idea binders (remember when we used to tear photos out of magazines?  Way back before Pinterest???)
11. Christmas craft supplies which need to be put away for the rest of the year.
12. A bin full of thrift store picture frames and supplies to make a couple of neat home decor projects that I have in mind.
13. Frames for an art project, and supplies to make a jewelry hanger in my closet.
14. A basket full of CD's that my quartet recorded and are for sale.

Wow, I guess there are quite a few things that I still need to purge, even though I totally got rid of a WHOLE bunch of stuff before we moved.   I haven't created a scrapbook page in years, but I can't bring myself to let go of some of my supplies.  Do you have the same kind of trouble parting with "stuff" in your stash?

The metal bookshelf is chock full of goodies:

The bottom shelf is completely full of music - binders and folders full of quartet and chorus music for my Sweet Adelines hobby.  On the next shelf up there are a few magazine holders full of craft and home decor magazines, but only about 1/10th of what I had before we moved - I did well on purging those.  The plastic drawers hold all sorts of craft supplies, pens, markers, adhesives, etc.  The top shelf has a bin full of random craft supplies and a stack of scrap paper that I use for all kinds of purposes.

One thing I I'm not crazy about is that this room is so dark! The walls are painted a pretty, neutral beige, but it's too dark. The windows in this room face north, and the ceiling fixture has a creamy opaque glass bowl over the lights, so the light in here is scarce, and the light is really yellow. When I cleaned up and organized the room I added two more lamps. The two goose-neck lamps on the desk have lightbulbs that bring natural light colors to the room, but the walls still cast a yellowish tint to the room. A project for the future will be to paint this room a much lighter, cooler shade of white to try to brighten up the space for more accurate color representation for various crafts that need to have good light.  The other thing is that I have a hodgepodge of furniture in here, including two folding tables used as desks, two scratch-and-dent metal filing cabinets, an old metal shelf from the garage, and an old three-legged decorator table.  I like the Expedit shelf system, but EVERYTHING else is kind of an eyesore.

BUT!  I'm so happy to have a room that can be dedicated to crafting, and it is great to have a functional space with minimal cost.  And now it feels really good to have it cleaned up again.   I hope to have time tomorrow to unbox my sewing machine and learn how to get it up and running.

Have you been organizing your home after the holidays?  What areas have you been tackling?  I'd love to hear about it!  Please leave a comment to share your organization projects this month.
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I'd like to invite you to come back next Tuesday to my weekly "Happy Tuesday" Link Party.  Each week we're sharing anything and everything that makes us happy!  That's easy enough, right?   The party starts on Monday nights at 9pm Eastern, and lasts all day Tuesday.   Please come and join in! You can read more about the party by clicking on the image below.

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Linking to:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesday
Ivy And Elephants - What's It Wednesday
Fluster Buster - Fluster's Creative Muster
Someday Crafts - Whatever Goes Wednesday
The Golden Sycamore - Inspiration Gallery
Between Naps on the Back Porch - Metamorphosis Monday